Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 4 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.55
Q Yeah, and where do the Middle East nations fit into that equation? Are they part of the bloc?
A Sure. David, I would say this. There's three trends going on in the Middle East. Step back from the news of the Strait of Hormuz. There's three or four trends that we then aggregate, and one of the reasons I laid out what I laid out in Israel was Is a way that would isolate Iran. It would be a good day for Israel's security, a good day for America's leadership, and a good day for American allies in the Middle East. The UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait are staying with kind of the United States. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan in that first list. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, and Qatar look like they're hedging. They know they're reliant on America, but they're not going to be so dependent that they're vulnerable because of the lack of the leadership in two wars, Iran and Iraq. That's one trend. And one of the reasons I mentioned the, the speech, the India, Middle East, Europe economic corridor, it keeps everybody coming closer to the United States economically. And also politically on the 23 states. Second, Iran invested 40 years and forty billion plus in the, what Israel described as the octopus, the proxies. Hamas is degraded to defeat. I thought that was a very good article in the foreign affairs on this point. Hezbollah is cornered. Damascus and Syria has been lost, and the Iraqi president seems to be making a pretty good headway, not all the way there, on dealing with the mil…
AI assessment note: “The UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait are staying with kind of the United States.”
Answered raw tape
D 4 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.00
Q Yeah. Is that a different view than the Obama era notion that we should be exporting American culture, American democracy, I think was the framing. And that then opened the floodgates to exporting our culture wars. And then our culture wars became this kind of battleground where there's like transgender theater in Africa and like things like that, right? I don't think all of this stuff.
A No, I don't think that's what opened the door. Uh, look, David, I think the United States of America, like every country has four tools in their national security toolbox. One is military power. Second is political persuasion. Third is economic statecraft, and fourth is cultural attraction. And you're saying that, I mean, I think America's culture writ large, not just Hollywood. The American brand is a cultural attraction, or was. I actually think this president has hurt the American brand. Our economic statecraft, our market, Our technology, our universities and research, uh, national labs, that is a piece of our economic statecraft, is a piece of our national security, and our ability, you know, there's a great story the other day by David Graham, but, you know, only the United States can get Russia and Ukraine around the table. There is no other world like power. Our political persuasion to do that is an asset in our national security toolbox. If you wanted to do, the reason I laid out in my speech in the Middle East, in Israel, the twenty-three-state solution, China, Russia, or Europe cannot do that. Only we can do that. Now, we have a massive political, political, a military power. Each, uh, I happen to think it's not prepared for the future. That's on both parties. I was also present at one at them. I think we got so enamored with the war on terror. We lost sight of the t…
AI assessment note: “No, I don't think that's what opened the door.”
